


river styx

by jangjoos



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: A LOT of Angst, Angst, Greek Underworld, M/M, it's basically a retelling of a greek myth idk anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 13:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14113338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jangjoos/pseuds/jangjoos
Summary: And the Underworld is very cold, abyssal shadows chill and frigid darkness blooms- but here with Daeyeol, it’s so, so warm.





	river styx

_ Don’t look back. _

So Sungyoon looks ahead, keeps his eyes trained on the grit and gravel that lay before him. He scales the insurmountable hill ahead with diligence, maps out each and every step with careful discretion, tries his best to ignore the deafening silence that blares behind him. He, no,  _ they  _ were treading carefully along the banks of River Styx, raging current snapping at their ankles like writhing snakes in a pit. He walks with Daeyeol, but Sungyoon hears only his own footsteps scrambling at rocks scattered on the trodden ground. 

It’s dark. Tiny wisps of sunlight drift in from the surface, highlighting the faces of nooks and crannies in the world below, though the more prominent shadows dance and flicker with delight as the light passes through. Sungyoon narrowly avoids skidding over a ledge, kicking loose some stray bits of rock and dirt that sit at the very edge of the cliff. It’s a difficult climb, but he stops himself just before he could spare a glance over his shoulder, make sure that Daeyeol’s doing alright. 

_Don’t look back,_ Sungyoon chides himself again, but in his mind’s eye, he couldn’t help but look back. 

And he looks back to a simpler time. A time with Daeyeol sprawled across their old couch, eyebrows scrunched cutely through golden spectacles as he focused on the worn, yellowed pages of an old book. He looked up, smiling at Sungyoon as he walked into the house and shut the door behind him.

“You’re back,” Daeyeol greeted, placing his book on the side table. 

Sungyoon shedded his coat and eyed him with a grin. “Yeah. Missed me?” 

To that, Daeyeol scoffed. He stood up and walked over, sturdy arms pull Sungyoon into a warm hug. 

“I always miss you,” he murmured into his ear. “I love you. So much.” 

Sungyoon sighed into the base of Daeyeol’s neck as he embraced him, breathing in his scent. Simpler times indeed. The house was fairly quiet at this hour, large windows filtered gentle light into its rooms. Outside, blue skies sprawled over their city, marred by shaded clouds. Everything felt like it was going to be alright. 

_ Don’t look back,  _ a tiny voice yanks Sungyoon back to the present, warning him to stay on task. 

They’re about halfway up the hill at this point, the mouth of Erebos gapes threateningly below. He’d look down, see how far they’d come, but there’s a certain degree of risk that comes with that. Sungyoon still finds it a little bit eerie, the fact that Daeyeol doesn’t make a peep as they climbed. The Daeyeol he knows would have bantered all the way up, would have yelped every time he slipped, would have grabbed his hand and laughed and smiled. 

_ Don’t look back. _

Sungyoon feels the pressure of the earth loosen its death grip. They’re approaching the surface. His heartbeat quickens- soon, he’ll have Daeyeol back in his arms. Soon, everything will be alright again. 

Is it just him, or did the Styx just rise a little? A drop of the oily water bites at his ankle, sizzling as it touches his skin. He grits his teeth and steps away from the deadly river, hoping that Daeyeol would follow suit. If he’s there, that is; he has to be there, right?

And Sungyoon looks back again. It was the dawn of spring, winter hardly given a chance to rest its powerful head, yet it was so, so warm. He opened his eyes- rays of sunlight shone in between the blinds, sharply contrasting with shadows on the ground. The bed they shared was familiar, feathery soft and welcoming. Daeyeol held him while he slept, and Sungyoon could feel every one of his deep, even breaths. Yes, here with Daeyeol, it was so, so warm. 

Daeyeol’s eyelashes fluttered as he suddenly blinked awake.

“Morning, love,” he yawned. 

Sungyoon grinned, snuggling closer, voice muffled by pillows. “Morning.” 

He whined softly in protest as Daeyeol sat up a little, gripped tighter as to not slip from his arms. Daeyeol stretched, a drowsy smile flickering on the fringes of his lips. 

“What time is it?” He muttered, “we should probably get up.” 

“It’s so earlyyy,” Sungyoon wheedled, burying himself further in the sheets.

“I want to spend more time with you.” And to that, Daeyeol chuckled, gave him a few light pats on the head. 

_ Don’t look back.  _

But how, pray tell, can he possibly not? Those were simple times, much simpler times, and they’re getting close, so close to the end. The darkness of the Underworld recedes here, allowing earthly light to pervade long shadows. The river runs thin and dry as it approaches crashing headwaters. The hill gradually flatlines as they reach the peak. The Land of the Dead slowly rises from its cold, stagnant grave. There were said to be heroes of days long past, heroes who have traversed through the Underworld and escaped with their lives in tow. And although they’ve faced countless trials and tribulations, suffered hardships beyond imagination, not one has ever been able to bring someone back from the dead, to resuscitate that which has passed into the realm of Hades. For a long time, it was simply assumed to be a hopeless feat beyond human achievement.

And Sungyoon’s about to do it. He’s about to simply waltz out of the place with Daeyeol, burst into the surface of the earth with his love back in his arms; the very thought makes him delirious with joy. 

_ Don’t look back. _

Looking back, the few days that have passed seemed to all blur into a single event. He remembered that awful day, the blaring sirens and the flashing lights. He remembered every gruesome detail, Daeyeol gasping shallow breaths as he laid limp in his arms. Someone yelled into Sungyoon’s ear, snapping him out of his trance. All of a sudden, shutters clicked, blurry surroundings came into focus. 

“Don’t go…” He pleaded, feeling Daeyeol’s shallow breaths devolve into erratic shudders, shoulders trembling as he struggled to respond. 

“Don’t go…” Sungyoon begged again, choking on his sobs. “Please. Please...” 

And there’s that smile again, a firelight in the midst of his growing darkness. Daeyeol’s eyes opened for what he might find to be the last time. Sadness, contentment...pity swept across his face. But pity for whom? Sungyoon? To that, he almost laughed. It was funny; like _Daeyeol_ had to be the one to pity him, in the end, in a situation like this.

“I’ll miss you,” Daeyeol managed to rasp. A tear fell from his eyes, mixed with fresh blood on the concrete. “I love you. So much.”

“I want... to spend more time with you…” Sungyoon declares to nobody, after the echoes of Daeyeol’s pulse flatlined into nothing, after all signs of life faded like the scarlet stains on indifferent ground.

_ Don’t look back… _

The exit lies just ahead, mere steps away. Their laborious climb comes to a close.

Sungyoon hardly remembered traveling to the Underworld, the way the road flew past as he drove miles across the countryside, the way his feet chafed underneath him when he consigned himself to walking the rest of the way there, his car abandoned in a ditch somewhere along the way. He couldn’t think, couldn’t form any coherent thoughts in his head besides  _ Lee Daeyeol,  _ but there was a legend, a legend about a rock that split to reveal an entrance to Hades. 

He did remember singing his way through, the way his voice cracked the rock open, the way a path sprawled ahead for him to traverse despite his already sore legs. He remembered charming every guardian entity that wandered the desolate world below, taming Cerberus and moving Charon to tears. He didn’t look back. 

They let him have Daeyeol.  _ They let him have Daeyeol.  _ Sungyoon could hardly believe his ears- they’d let him bring Daeyeol back, so long as he didn’t look back on the way back to the surface. So long as he didn’t look back…

Was it already too late?

Sungyoon stops in his tracks. What had they meant by  _ look back,  _ exactly? When they told him,  _ don’t look back,  _ he simply assumed that they meant  _ look back  _ in a physical sense. But the silence, it’s unnerving- Daeyeol’s lack of footsteps, little to no signs of his presence. A chill runs down his spine; what if he’d already violated that rule, what if Daeyeol was already long gone.

_ Don’t. Look. Back. _

And Sungyoon doesn’t stop himself this time. He steals a glance over his shoulder, albeit a very quick one, catches sight of the chasm looming below, of Phlegethon’s fiery waters glowing in the distant darkness, of batlike creatures soaring above Stygian peaks. He sees the illustrations that accompanied the ominous screeching of the Underworld’s many inhabitants; but most importantly, he sees Lee Daeyeol. 

Helplessness clouds Daeyeol’s eyes as he stares back, then resignation, then pity, then a type of happiness that Sungyoon has no name for.

“Don’t go,” Sungyoon finds himself begging again. 

But Daeyeol smiles once again as his fingertips begin to dissolve into the void of Hades, steps closer to Sungyoon and locks him with the fondest of gazes. Ethereal hands grasp mortal ones, and Sungyoon feels warmth fade with physicality. Daeyeol’s hands are beginning to lose physical form, and at some point, it feels like his own hands could simply ghost through them as if they didn’t exist. When Daeyeol steps forward once again to hug him tightly, it still feels as such, albeit to a much lesser extent.

And the Underworld is very cold, abyssal shadows chill and frigid darkness blooms- but here with Daeyeol, it’s so, so warm. 

Their last kiss is desperate and perhaps a bit messy- euphoric, despite its tragic implications. Sungyoon just barely feels Daeyeol’s ghostly, yet warm hands on his neck- pulling him closer with a firm authority, yet so physically translucent that they barely display an inkling of strength. Daeyeol’s taste slowly disappears from his lips as their kiss deepens. Eventually, he fades away completely, leaving Sungyoon behind to hold nothing but empty space. An old book sinks as it’s washed away by the roaring headwaters of the Styx, hundreds of pages and memories drift away from a damaged spine.

Don’t look back.

\---

But Sungyoon makes sure to look back every single time. Years later, after his own life passes by him in an indistinct blur of music and heartbreak, he finally meets Daeyeol again in the heart of Hades. Sungyoon leads the way as they take walks along the trodden banks of the Styx, talking to him, singing to him, glancing back and reminiscing whenever he chooses.

**Author's Note:**

> "what if i just spontaneously changed between tenses instead of using flashbacks"  
> sdkajdwaa i'm sorry this is kind of a mess but yeah angst amirite haha  
> it's. short. but it felt like it took forever to write wow i love life  
> i'm @bojooch on twt now so ten gold stars if you can tell me what myth this fic references


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